Thursday, June 05, 2014

ATF AGENT THOMAS SLEDGE AND THE MYSTERIOUS DYNAMITE PARTICLES THAT HELPED LOCK UP THE OMAHA TWO



Tomorrow is Prison Friday at Scission, but I have some plumbing issues to deal with, so I am advancing it one day.

I am returning once again to the Omaha Two.  I will keep doing so until these men are free and someone pays  the price for decades stolen from them.  For those of you, still unfamiliar with the case, here is a briefing from the FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR MONDO WE LANGA AND ED POINDEXTER Facebook page:



On August 17, 1970, the Omaha, Nebraska Police Department received a 911 emergency phone call. The caller reported that a woman was screaming for help from a vacant house. The address given for the house was 2867 Ohio Street. The police arrived at the scene and started to investigate. No screaming woman was found. Near the doorway of the house was a suitcase. The officers stepped over the suitcase to get into the house. As a search of the house was being conducted, an explosion occurred. Police officer Larry Minard, who was near the suitcase, was killed instantly. Investigation showed that the suitcase contained dynamite and was set to explode when moved. Arrested for placing the bomb was Duane Peak, age 15. Peak was charged with first degree murder for planting the bomb. In an attempt to lighten his sentence, Peak implicated Mondo we Langa and Edward Poindexter. 



Mondo we Langa was a known member of the NCCF (National Committee to Combat Fascism) This group consisted of Black Panther Party members who were working to protect the black community from police brutality. Mondo we Langa was Minister of Information in the NCCF and Ed was its Deputy Director. Mondo's and Ed’s political beliefs and actions were the principal reason that they were convicted. There are documents confirming that the FBI helped to suppress evidence in this case that would have completely discredited the key witness against the convicted men. At the time of the bombing, the FBI had implemented an operation known as COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) to spy on U.S. citizens and to "neutralize" individuals and groups who were working to advance the human and constitutional rights of African Americans and Native Americans as well as any other individuals and groups deemed by the FBI to be a "clear and present danger to the security of the United States." The documents were obtained from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act.


Much evidence has surfaced which provides more proof of the innocence of these two men and the conspiracy to put them away.  For some of that here are just a few Scission stories:


THE MIDWEST BLACK PANTHER 22 AND THE NEVER ENDING WAR ON THE BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT



OMAHA TWO: EVERYONE KNOWS IT IS JUST WRONG



FREE MONDO AND ED

Now, the media in general has chosen to turn its collective back on this total miscarriage of anything even approaching justice.  We all know that and we all know why.

There is one guy, I don't know much about him, but he is intent on not letting Mondo and Ed be forgotten.  His name is Michael Richardson.  Michael  has written extensively about the FBI's Operation COINTELPRO and is working on a book about the "Omaha Two" imprisoned in the last COINTELPRO conviction in 1971.  His body of work on the persecution of Mondo and Ed can be found here.    I just want to thank him for his efforts.

Here is his latest piece from the Examiner.



ATF agent had vials of dynamite powder along with evidence in Omaha Two case 


Thomas Sledge, an agent of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division, in Omaha, Nebraska, carried small plastic vials of dynamite powder with him while transporting evidence in the 1970 bombing murder case of an Omaha policeman. Two Black Panther leaders, Edward Poindexter andMondo we Langa (then David Rice), were convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. Included with the evidence against the two men were dynamite particles found in their clothing.
Dynamite traces were found in the shirt pocket of Ed Poindexter and pants pockets of Mondo we Langa upon their arrests. However, both men deny any knowledge of how the dynamite got into their clothing and its presence is suspicious. Both men were tested for dynamite when their clothing was seized and were found clean. In Mondo’s case, the Omaha World-Heraldphotographed Mondo while waiting for the jail elevator with his hands deep in his pockets just moments before his hands tested clean.
Agent Sledge is now deceased but has become a focal point of controversy following the recent disclosure of the terminated Midwest 22 conspiracy investigation. Sledge was the lead agent in the biggest investigation of his career into a purported four-state bombing conspiracy by twenty-two black radicals. Both Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa were targets of Sledge’s conspiracy investigation.
United States Attorney Richard Dier nixed the ATF investigation by refusing to prosecute Sledge’s suspects. Dier explained the “trend in the judiciary is away from major complex conspiracies.” In July 1970, the Justice Department cancelled Sledge’s planned search of the National Committee to Combat Fascism headquarters in Omaha. Sledge was no doubt angry at his cancelled search as Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gallup was so enraged he resigned as a federal prosecutor.
Thomas Sledge was not a career ATF professional but rather a new agent with less than a two year history with the agency. However, Sledge was a nine year veteran of the Omaha Police Department and older brother of James Sledge, a patrolman injured in the August 17, 1970 bombing that claimed the life of Larry Minard, Sr.
Sledge was determined to make a case against those he suspected of a series of unsolved bombings in Omaha and other cities in the Midwest that summer. Sledge testified at the trial of the Omaha Two, as Poindexter and Mondo are now known, and handled crucial evidence in the case. Thomas Sledge hand-carried their clothing to Washington, D.C. for analysis at the ATF Laboratory. Sledge also carried small vials of dynamite powder.
The testimony of Sledge at the Minard murder trial was recorded and the trial transcript reveals that Sledge could have dusted the pockets with dynamite powder on the way to the ATF laboratory.
Thomas Sledge testified at trial: “I received a call from Special Investigator Casper at 4:30 a.m., that there was a bombing and that my brother was involved….I went down to the police station at about five a.m. and checked on my brother.”
Sledge then went to the blast site, arriving at seven o’clock in the morning and searched continuously for the next twelve hours. Within days Sledge would make several trips to the ATF Laboratory with evidence in the case delivering it to ATF chemist Kenneth Snow.
Thomas Sledge was also involved in the purported discovery of dynamite in Mondo we Langa’s basement during the August 22 search of Mondo’s home with detective Jack Swanson, who claimed to have found the dynamite. Convenient to a frame-up, Swanson also maintained his own dynamite cache at a quarry in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he stored dynamite seized from three men in July 1970.
Later, after Swanson’s death, detective Robert Pfeffer would claim he found the dynamite not Jack Swanson. Pfeffer also would later claim he, along with ATF agents at the search, found rigged suitcases. The alleged rigged suitcases were not noted on any report or documented in any fashion by anyone and their disposal or location is unknown and unrecorded. Sledge testified that Pfeffer found blasting caps but did not mention any rigged suitcases or Pfeffer’s role in discovery of dynamite.
Sledge and Swanson did transport fourteen sticks of dynamite to the police station. At the station, Sledge and another ATF agent emptied two of the sticks. Sledge testified, “We also took samples of each stick.” Sledge then placed the dynamite powder in plastic vials and said “I took those to Washington” with other evidence.
Sledge’s testimony about his sole custody of the dynamite evidence is confirmed by a prosecution “Trial Memorandum” found buried in the files of the Douglas County District Court by a court researcher.
The Trial Memorandum states: “Thomas Sledge, Special Agent for the AT&F people, will be mainly responsible for the custody of the items found at 2816 Parker [Mondo’s house] in that he personally carried them to Washington, D.C. and turned them over to the laboratory in Washington”.
Thomas Sledge, upset and angered over his brother’s injuries in the August 17 bombing, frustrated about his cancelled search of NCCF headquarters, was alone with vials of dynamite powder and clothing of the accused Black Panther leaders. The answer to the mystery about the dynamite particles in pockets may have been there all along, unnoticed, hidden in the trial transcript.
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa remain imprisoned at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary serving life sentences. Both men continue to deny any involvement in the murder of Larry Minard, Sr.
For more information on Thomas Sledge
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